Sorry John, I should have said "thanks Bobert", I was indeed referring sarcastically to the "informed electorate" he mentioned, because in my view to be informed you need to be first educated to a reasonable level, so as to have access to sufficient sources of information and to be able to assimilate it. And the average educational levels both in the US and in the UK where I live have been steadily dropping over the last 30 years. Ergo, our electorates on average are as informed as parrots and slightly more than sheep.